Tunisia

Controversial legislation granting amnesty to Tunisian officials accused of corruption under toppled dictator Zine al-Abidine Ben Ali has been signed into law by the country’s president.

The legality of the act, which effectively amounts to a reprieve for pre-revolutionary officials who may have abetted acts of corruption under the old regime, was referred to Tunisia’s temporary Constitutional Commission by opposition MPs after its stormy but successful passage through parliament on 13 September.

The International Center for Transitional Justice denounces the passage of Tunisia’s deeply flawed “Administrative Reconciliation” law, which grants amnesty to public officials who were involved in corruption during the dictatorship but who claim they did not personally gain from it.

With enforced disappearances on the rise, ICTJ President David Tolbert says the path to prevention is clear: the international community must reorder its priorities and change its approach. The disproportionate attention on counterterrorism takes us further away from accountability and prevention, Tolbert writes. He urges the international community to lead the way in unequivocally censoring governments that use enforced disappearance as a political tactic — and ensuring there can be no impunity for this crime.

Tunisia's parliament delayed voting on a bill that calls for amnesty for former public officials accused of corruption during the rule of president Ben Ali.

Lawmakers decided to delay the vote until September after the newly created High Judicial Council asked for more time to study the bill.

Aimed at building reconciliation after Tunisia's 2011 revolution that removed Ben Ali, the bill offered amnesty for high-ranking state officials, including ambassadors and other administrative workers, involved in corruption during the former dictator's rule.

Recent protests in Tunisia reflect mounting frustration at the broken promises of the country’s democratic leaders. Over 15 percent of Tunisians are unemployed, and nearly 40 percent of those without work are university graduates. Suspicions are also growing that those who looted Tunisia during decades of dictatorship will escape accountability and punishment.